In OZ

For those of you anxiously awaiting my first reports from across the world, I'm sorry it took so long. For those who haven't been on the edge of their seats, well, ok. I've been in Adelaide for 5 days, and this is what I've learned:

- be careful crossing the street; the cars come from opposite directions here
- it's pronounced PREM-ier, not pre-MIER
- Australians don't use central heat
- everything is expensive but sushi, laundry, and wine
- it's pronounced BRIZ-bon, not Bris-bane
- they don't use cheques, or checking accounts
- they take occupational health and safety very seriously
- international students are very nice
- I need to start including myself when I speak of international students
- their $2 coins are smaller than their $1 coins
- people love American media, and know more about US politics than many Americans
- Vegemite really is eaten often on toast
- they eat pumpkin as a vegetable, and rarely use it in dessert
- there isn't enough water in the toilets to see it flushing the opposite direction (sorry!)
- the birds here are CRAZY loud
- music tastes stink
- what they consider the depths of winter really feels like October
- did I mention how incredibly expensive everything is?? A 12-oz Coke can be AU$3.00


I have really been enjoying myself so far, barring the first day when I got hit with an unusually high dose of homesickness (rare for me). I'm trying to quickly learn the metric conversions for everything, but it's a challenge. It's fun to be an ex-patriot, surrounded by other ex-pats. I live in a graduate-only college, and most of the people who live with me are international as well. There are very few Americans, which is unsurprising, but I have met, other than the ones who came with me, a botanist from Duke, and a Canadian. The rest are from Europe or Asia. You find that people quickly segregate into smaller communities: the Chinese eat together, Continental Europeans all hang out together, though they all speak in English to one another, and what I can fondly refer to as the "Commonwealths" (English, Irish, New Zealanders, Australians, Canadians, and Americans) have been spending time together. As always, I'm one of the youngest, but it doesn't really matter.

I've already taken lots of pictures, but as I don't have access to internet in my room, I haven't uploaded them. Once I do, I'll post them here and on facebook. It's a beautiful city, if smaller and more suburban than I had been expecting, and I'm looking forward to spending 6 months here. Stay tuned for more updates! I'm sure there will be many, and illustrated!!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

In 14 hours!!! Two days from now, I will be across the world in Australia for the next six months! How excited am I!? Well, very. And a bit nervous, anxious, and worried too. I suppose this is often what happens at the onset of a possibly life-changing adventure. I haven't been this far from home in my life, and living in another country will be an adjustment. Also, the fact that my layover in Detroit is short enough that it's possible I could miss my connecting flight to LA if I'm delayed, and that I just got hit (as in today) with food poisoning that had the potential to be severely debilitating to my travel. But I'm so pumped anyway! The sickness is gone, I'll run across the airport if I have to to catch that darn LA flight, and god dammit this time two days from now I'll be looking out onto an Australian beach (albeit incredibly jetlagged and travel-weary).

I'm living my dream baby!!! Wish me luck!

Triple Digit Days

Can you believe it? And it's barely June! We're sweltering here in the Upstate, and have been reduced to sheltering in our albeit very nice basement. It's way cooler. It is now two weeks until I leave for Adelaide, and boy is it craaaaazy stressful. I still have many preparations to make, and am feeling the pressure. I'm sure it will all work out, and in two weeks and two days (it's a two-day trip) I will be an official ex-pat! (Well, kind of)